I managed to include a few classic AD&D tropes into my campaign mythos and one of these is portraying the god of Death as...well, Death. I remembered the deck of many things had a card where a "minor death" appeared and attacked the characters. I remember other instances where a classic grim reaper character was referenced in this or that AD&D article so I thought why not write up the Death god in my own AD&D campaign as the Grim Reaper.
Death (The Reaper)
Greater God
Armor Class: -3
Movement: Infinite
Hit Points: 100
No. of Attacks: 1
Damage of Attacks: All of your current HP.
Special Attacks: Shadow
Special Defenses: Immediately heals to full health when attacked by any form of attack either mundane or magical. Immune to Cold, Fire, Acid, Negative Energy and Lightning.
Magic Resistance: 90%
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Worshiper's Alignment: Any
Symbol: The Skull
Spells: Casts Divine Spells as a 14th level Cleric. Casts Arcane Spells as a 14th level Magic-User. Attacks as a 14th level Fighter. Saves as a 14th Level Magic-User.
Death wears vestments, robes or armor which appear to be fashioned of iron but which move with the suppleness of cloth. His skin is pale like bone. The grand lord of the Darkling realm holds audience in a massive chamber filled with candles and lamps so that he casts no shadow. Death must be cautious of where his shadow falls for any mortal being touched by his shadow is immediately slain.
Should Death be called to release the soul of someone held within his realm he offers a bargain. The nature of this bargain is the result of the roll of a strange pair of dice fashioned from the bones of a beast long extinct in the mortal plane. Should this be played out in the campaign the DM rolls 1d12 and consults the table below:
1. The soul is released without any further trade or negotiation necessary.
2. The party must surrender their most powerful magic item in return for the soul of their companion.
3. The party must trade 10,000 gold pieces in treasure for the soul of their companion.
4. A party member must abandon and utterly forget one major goal of their character, the death of a dream for the life of a friend.
5. Death will trade the soul of the friend in exchange for the destruction of a vampire.
6. Death will trade the soul of a friend in exchange for 10 years from every character in the party bargaining for him.
7. The soul is granted in exchange for 1d4+1 points of Charisma deducted from the highest Charisma character in the party.
8. A character must sacrifice one of their senses. Roll 1d6. 1. Vision. 2. Hearing. 3. Taste. 4. Touch 5. Smell. 6. Ability to perceive colors.
9. The soul is returned by the characters must find an empty vessel to place it into. This vessel cannot be the soul's previous body.
10. Death refuses to return the soul because it would create to great a disruption in the future order of things.
11. Death agrees to release the soul but one of the party members has to take the dead character's place within Death's domain.
12. Death agrees to a game of chance. Roll 1d6. If the party member rolls higher the soul is released. If Death rolls higher the party member is slain.
Death can grant the full range of clerical spells to his priests. He provides clerics who devote themselves to his service a miracle at 3rd level and a miracle at 5th level.
3rd Level Miracle - Cheat Death
At third level the cleric of Death can be reduced to negative ten hit points and appear for all purposes dead. 1d6x10 minutes later the cleric's wounds knit themselves closed and the cleric will drag themselves back to their feet with one hit point. This miracle occurs automatically but it can only happen once per week in game time.
5th Level Miracle - Dice with Death
Once per day the cleric of Death can re-roll any single dice roll but the second roll must be accepted no matter the result.
Well there you have it. Another installment for Dungeon Mastering by Candlelight. The OSR blog that provides you with a little bit of content for your homebrew campaign just about every day of the week.
Happy Adventuring!!
-Ed
No comments:
Post a Comment